Quinnipiac – Page 5

Two years later: Quinnipiac’s struggle with inclusion and diversity on campus

By: Sarah Russell and Randy Del Valle

Two years ago on Sept. 19, Quinnipiac University exploded with controversy as a Snapchat circulated the campus. The snap included an image of a caucasian female student with a black-colored face mask on. The caption read, “black lives matter.”

The university faced major backlash as the image hit mainstream news media and officials tried to keep the image from being a representation of the school. The student who took the picture and wrote the caption left the school, and the student in the photo was left trying to rebuild her reputation.

And faculty, staff, and students had to determine how to promote a more diverse culture where this would never be an issue again.

Fast forward to today, university administrators say they have spent the last two years working on different ways to bring a more diverse mix of people to campus and to build an environment where students and staff feel they belong and are respected.

Yet even with the university trying to promote diversity and inclusion, many students and staff still say there’s more work to be done.

Chief Diversity Officer Don Sawyer said whenever people talk about an inclusive campus, people tend to only focus on students of color and that’s not what inclusive excellence is about.

“Inclusive excellence is about making sure that your campus is welcoming to all people,” Sawyer said. “We want to build a campus where everyone feels that they are a part of this Bobcat nation.”

“When we make the campus a welcoming space, it’s not just for those who are underrepresented or those who are marginalized, it creates a campus environment where everyone feels welcomed.”

Sawyer says inclusion and diversity are considered a “hot button topic,” and that people often don’t want to talk about things of that nature.

“Some people are afraid to talk about the topic, because some people think ‘ok if I talk about race people are going to think I’m a racist, you know I don’t want to say the wrong thing if I say the wrong thing people are going to smear my name.’”

“When we talk about inclusion people say we want to increase the number of underrepresented people on campus, but we have to talk about what does it mean once they get here,” Sawyer said. “So if the campus is not prepared for the increase, then I think the increase doesn’t make sense.”

“So we have to work with one another to create a campus that’s welcoming to everyone and then we can actually start talking about inclusion.”

Sawyer also explained that inclusion works when people have dialogue, interaction and perspective taking.

“If we have dialogue and then we have intentional forums, intentional programs, intentional opportunities with people to interact during that dialogue interaction. We are able to understand the perspective of others,” Sawyer said. “Understanding the perspective of others, understanding the reality of others, it broadens our mindset, it broadens our scope. Just because something is not our reality doesn’t mean that it’s not a reality.”

The Quinnipiac Bias Incident Response Team (QBIRT) reviews reports submitted by students online. The team looks at the reports to see if there’s a need for an investigation.

“What we’re going to be doing is to have an online submission portal where you can submit things whether it’s for Title IX, sexual harassment or bias incident or things of that nature where it will be a one stop shop for you to get educated,” Sawyer said. “It will also be a space where you can report anonymously.”

Edgar Rodriguez, chief of public safety, also admits that diversity and inclusion problems on campus still exist, but that the entire university continues to work on these issues.

“I think it’s very important to have those discussions and collaborate with different organizations and different students and get to the bottom of it,” Rodriguez said.

“You have to get people involved. You can’t do it on your own. This is not a public safety issue. This is not a Res Life issue. This is a community issue.”

Rodriguez says he plans to create a Community Partnership Advisory Board, a diverse group that will come together to discuss public safety issues.

“What’s going on out there, and what would you like to see, and are some people being stopped at gates, some are not?” said Rodriguez.

A quote from Chief of Public Safety Edgar Rodriguez

He wants to include faculty, a student, a member of the Student Government Association and a professor from the Criminal Justice program among others to bring a cohesive group together and have all students feeling safe and protected on campus.

“How do we handle that, how do we treat everybody the same, how does everybody be treated equally. It’s not about a color, it’s about being a human being. It’s about treating everybody with respect.”

Rodriguez wants his staff to reflect the school community and has increased the diversity ratio in his department from 4 percent to 25 percent.

Abbie O’Neill in the Department of Cultural and Global Engagement said progress is being made on making Quinnipiac more inclusive.

“There’s a large population of students who do not feel [Quinnipiac is] inclusive. I think it’s making strides to become more inclusive, but it’s not there yet,” said O’Neill, a specialist for student engagement.

She says the school has been starting to support different multicultural groups and events, which could help students feel included on campus.

“I think highlighting the multicultural student organizations as places that students can go and either learn or become a part of something is a step in the right direction,” O’Neill said.

Recent changes the school has made include opening the multicultural suite for the multicultural organizations, creating the multicultural student leadership council and, for the first time, running a multicultural welcome week. Different events were put on by multicultural organizations each day during the week, ending with the culture fair.

Senior Layomi Akinnifesi thinks campus diversity is improving slowly but surely, but that inclusion – and how comfortable students and staff are with their differences – is more of the problem.

“Everyone is in their circles and bubbles and that’s what we need to improve on,” Akinnifesi said.

For example, Akinnifesi said that the Greek organizations don’t really work with the multicultural Greek organizations, and that some students don’t see the black or Latino student unions as being for them.

Some students said they don’t think that Quinnipiac is diverse at all.

“Just walking around you can notice that it’s not a diverse campus,” sophomore Andrea Reyes said.

“This is a PWI (predominantly white institution) so a majority of my classes I’m like one of the only person of color in the class,” sophomore Esau Greene said.

Greene believes that you can see the lack of diversity on campus, but that the school is working to make changes so that all feel welcome.

“There’s a pretty big disparity, but I do believe we are working our hardest to change and create a really diverse campus,” Greene said.

Students anonymously give their thoughts on how Quinnipiac can be more diverse and inclusive

As President Olian has begun her time at Quinnipiac, university staff believes that she will push further to make the school diverse and inclusive of all.

When this school year started freshmen were brought up to York Hill campus for a welcome ceremony where President Olian – as well as Mark Thompson, executive vice president, and Don Sawyer, chief diversity officer – all discussed the administration’s goal to be an inclusive and diverse campus.

<br />

“I think with this new administration you’re going to see a lot of changes for the better and I think you’re going to see a big change in the next couple of years. I think everybody’s on board, everybody believes this is the way to go,” said Rodriguez, the public safety chief. “This is a healthy way for us to move forward.”

What do you want HQ Press to cover?

A new batch of student reporters are starting in the HQ Press newsroom. Before reporting, we went around Quinnipiac and asked members in our community what they want to see in our coverage. Check us out on social media @hq_press on Instagram and Twitter. Send tips to hqpress.org@gmail.com.

Lahey’s legacy: The good, the bad and the expensive

By Grace Manthey

John Lahey is Quinnipiac University’s longest standing president. In 2014 he was the second-highest paid in the country, making over $3.7 million a year, according to an article from Business Insider.

However in a few short weeks the reign of Lahey will end and Judy Olian will take over. As the university’s first female president, Olian will be making history.

But Lahey already has. For the last 31 years Lahey has expanded the physical campus and increased the population. But he’s also dealt with the consequences of that growth.

When the university hired Lahey as president in 1987, Russia was still called the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan was president. Walk Like an Egyptian was the number one song.

And the quad on Quinnipiac’s main campus didn’t even exist. According to an article from Quinnipiac Magazine, Lahey was the one who first envisioned the current “quad.” Prior to 1987 it actually resembled more of an “L,” with just the library and a classroom building to the left.

Lahey and his team of architects built and renovated nearly 10 buildings amongst the three different campuses:

1989: Echlin Center

1993: Lender School of Business with the Ed McMahon Communications Center

1995: School of Law (now the Center for Communications and Engineering)

2000: renovated the Library, the Student Center and Buckman Theaters

2007: The York Hill arena

2007: North Haven campus

2009: York Hill residence halls dorms

2013: Frank H. Netter M.D. School of Medicine

Slide the white line back and forth to see changes from QU in 1991 to QU in 2017. Notice that while the school had built Echlin by 1991, it hadn’t built Center for Communications and Engineering, and it has also expanded the dorms since then. Also, York Hill was still just a hill back in ’91.

But all this expansion came as a result of the growing enrollment. The university needed somewhere to put the students they were admitting.

The graph above shows growth rates for Quinnipiac and Hamden over 30 years, according to Hamden’s website, the Quinnipiac registrar and Quinnipiac’s annual reports, which are on file in the library (photos of select pages are available here). In all but seven of those years, QU’s growth rate exceeded Hamden’s. The school’s enrollment dropped only one year, but Hamden’s population dropped or stayed virtually the same about half of the three decades.

And although reasons for an increase in enrollment aren’t definite, some peaks in growth rates happened around the same time as university expansions.

For example, according to Quinnipiac Magazine, the university opened the law school in 1995. The next year there was a small spike in enrollment rate.

Also, after President Lahey’s 2006 agreement with the town of Hamden to offer housing for all students on campus, the University saw its first negative growth rate in years in 2007.

Quinnipiac had not yet built the York Hill dorms; the expansion had only been approved in 2006. By the time the dorms were finished in 2010, the university had the highest growth rate in a decade.

However, with this growth came tension, as more young adults opted to live in off-campus housing in the surrounding town.

And in recent years, students having parties in off-campus housing have caused some conflicts between the town of Hamden and Quinnipiac. Although the university does offer housing for students for all four years, President Lahey said it’s unrealistic to expect all students to choose that option.

“If we’d built 500 more beds, more students would have come on campus, but there would still be the 20 percent who wouldn’t. It wouldn’t solve the problem, and we’d have hundreds of empty beds,” said Lahey in an interview with the Hartford Courant in 2015.

Since 2015 total enrollment has increased by close to 1,000 students. To keep the peace with the town, QU plans to expand housing. On March 27, the Hamden Planning and Zoning Commission approved Quinnipiac’s plan to build senior housing on York Hill, including over 200 more beds.

But it’s only a few problem houses a year that hurt the university’s relationship with the town. During the most recent school year eight noise complaints came from homes that had permits to rent to students, according to records from the Hamden Police Department (there may be landlords that rent to students without permits).

However there were close to 300 noise complaints over the same amount of time, spread across the entire town.

The black icons are addresses of noise complaints filed with the Hamden Police Department. The purple dots are addresses that have permits to rent to students. It should be noted that there may be some homes that do not have a permit to rent to student, but students may still live in some of the homes that are close to the Quinnipiac campus.

So despite the growth of Quinnipiac during the Lahey years, his tenure hasn’t been perfect. In 2015 Lahey attended an off campus party during “May Weekend,” a notorious party weekend at QU.

In an attempt to “be humorous” with the students, Lahey celebrated their May Weekend party, and his remarks enraged some Hamden residents and Quinnipiac alums.

“I deeply regret having made these remarks, for which I sincerely apologize. I have already personally conveyed this apology to Interim Mayor Jim Pascarella and renewed my commitment to work with him and town officials to resolve these long standing student housing issues in the immediate future,” Lahey said in a statement in 2015.

But just in time for his retirement, Lahey seems to be easing tensions.

In a 2017 press conference, Lahey presented Hamden Mayor Curt Leng with a $1.4 million check. The money will support the arts and culture programs in Hamden, according to Leng.

“Quinnipiac and the town are on better footing right now than we have been in a very long time, and that is a great benefit to the university and to the town,” Leng said at the press conference.

Perhaps the goal of mending university-town relations is the reason for the increase in tuition. While the average student doesn’t pay the current full tuition of over $60,000, according to annual reports, the amount has increased by over 200 percent over the last three decades.

Adjusted for inflation, in 1988 the average student paid almost $12,000. The most recent year available showed that an average student pays about $40,000.

And the university’s revenue increase isn’t just from tuition. Between 1988 and 2017 revenue from everything but tuition (including gifts, grants, and investment returns) increased nearly 400 percent, after adjusting for inflation.

But the distribution of that money hasn’t changed much over the years. The biggest difference in the expense data over the past 30 years was in student aid and scholarships, and sponsored research.

In 1988 less than a quarter of Quinnipiac’s expenses went to student aid and scholarships, but by 2017 it was close to a third. By increasing student aid, the university can increase enrollment and give opportunities for students who may not have been able to afford Quinnipiac’s hefty tuition.

While Lahey’s departure has left students wondering how life at Quinnipiac will change under a new president, Lahey has his own plans.

He plans to spend the colder months in Florida with his wife, Judy. But Lahey does plan to come back and teach a philosophy or logic course in spring of 2019, according to an interview with The Chronicle.

“I hope, I’m leaving Quinnipiac as someone who doesn’t take themself any more seriously than they have to and appreciates the people around them,” Lahey said.

Student Government Association budget increases after 2016 budget cut

By Thamar Bailey

After a two year battle for a budget increase, on April 25 Quinnipiac University Student Government Association President of Public Relations Victoria Johnson announced the SGA budget will be increased to $725,000 for the 2018-2019 academic year.

In 2016 the university announced it would cut the SGA budget to $600,000. This figure was based on SGA’s historical spending pattern. The organization, on average, was only spending that amount, according to SGA President Ryan Hicks. Hicks also noted the lack of checks and balances and fiscal responsibility among the student organizations were also factors in the universities’ decision to the limit funding.

Now, SGA will receive a $125,000 increase for the upcoming academic year.

The budget increase comes a week and a half after SGA had its “Spring Finance Weekend,” when the organization distributes its budget among the student organizations that requested money for the upcoming academic year. While the organization now has over $700,000 to work with, that wasn’t the case when SGA made its budget breakdown for next year.

Based on the budget cut that was first implemented in the 2017-2018 academic year, SGA only had $600,000 to distribute among the 79 different campus organizations that requested money, and they went over.

“The process we did [that] weekend, we went through and we heard every single organization and allocated all the money as if it was in-line with policy and came in way over our $600,000 mark,” Hicks said. “So then we went through and cut all conferences and competitions to get that number down and then we cut all that off-campus travel and then all the growth.”

As a result various student organizations took hits to their requested budget. In the projected 2018-2019 budget Public Relations Society of America was set to lose 91 percent of its budget. Last year, the first year the budget cut was implemented, PRSSA requested less money and still lost 91 percent of its budget.

The budget cut decreased the groups presence on campus as well as its members chances of gaining professional experience, according to PRSSA President Samantha Nardone.

“For my group this meant we weren’t able to attend the National Conference in October, where students got to network and attend workshops focused on specific areas of public relations,” Nardone said. “We also weren’t able to go on agency tours, which in the past has been a great way for students to get internships.”

PRSSA is just one of the various academic groups that have taken hits to their budget. The Global Affairs Association, Entrepreneurship Club and Pre- Physician Assistant club among others have lost more than half of their budget.

Academic groups are integral in preparing students for their careers, according to Nardone.

“Academic groups give students the opportunity to get real world experience in their field in ways the classroom can’t,” Nardone said. “ In any field that has a professional group for college students, employers will expect that you have been a member.”

Cultural groups were also affected. The Black Student Union and Italian Cultural Society were among those that lost 50 percent or more of their budget.

Major campus events like the Big Event and Relay lost a quarter or more of their funding.

Even the Student Programming Board, which was allotted 65 percent of the SGA budget in the current academic year, lost a minor percentage of their budget.

However, even though a majority of the SGA funded student organizations lost funding they were still able to receive additional funding through the special appeals process.

This year 81 special appeals were made and 51 were approved for additional funding. The special appeal approval ruling is based on the purpose of the appeal made by the student organization. The event has to be aligned with the organization’s mission, and SGA needs to have available funds.

The special appeals process was one piece of evidence Hicks used to request a budget increase. Since special appeals allow for off-campus travel, competitions and conferences, Hicks used the appeals process as evidence to note the valuable experiences students were able to have.

Hicks delivered multiple proposals to the university hoping to show the university that additional funding was necessary to facilitate better student experiences.

“The majority of the student experience is surrounded by what you get involved in and we hear that preached so often ‘Get involved in student organizations because they help you develop these qualities that you need in the field, they help you develop professionally, they allow you to network,’” Hicks said. “But if the money’s not there and they don’t have these opportunities then that limits their student experience.”

While the money is now available to benefit student organizations there is no set plan as to how SGA will allocate the funds among the student organizations, according to Hicks.

Quinnipiac women’s tennis wins MAAC championship for fifth straight year

By Bill Ruocco

For the fifth consecutive year, the Quinnipiac women’s tennis team is the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champions. The Bobcats defeated the Marist Red Foxes 4-1 on Sunday to seal their fifth title in as many years as they’ve been in the MAAC.

Your 2018 MAAC Champions. Five straight MAAC titles for the Bobcats! pic.twitter.com/qauj2YYnOX

— Quinnipiac Women's Tennis (@QU_WTEN) April 29, 2018

After shutting out Niagara University yesterday 4-0, Quinnipiac was able to hold on to beat Marist in New Jersey at Mercer County Tennis Center.

Although dominance has become a normalcy for the team, Paula Miller, the director of Quinnipiac tennis and the women’s team’s head coach, says it never gets any easier.

“Everyone always talks about the success,” Miller said. “But every time we come out here to play I feel the nerves and every year the teams actually compete harder against us.”

Miller added that nerves aside, she will always believe in her team.

“I’m always worried but I have the faith in my girls to come out and win,” Miller said.

For this team, faith and trust is a necessity due to the youth of the roster since all of the starters were either juniors or freshmen.

The younger teams came through today when the team needed them most, even after a tough start.

“Payton (Bradley) at number three was down five-one in the second set and ended up coming back and winning the set so my freshmen are tough,” Miller added.

However, the success was not held to only one freshman.

Moments before Jennifer Lu’s clincher, this was Dominique Vasile’s match point at 1 to give the Bobcats a 3-1 lead – Vasile and Lu at 1 and 2 had simultaneous set points and simultaneous match points. pic.twitter.com/C5gbtvfchP

— Quinnipiac Women's Tennis (@QU_WTEN) April 29, 2018

“Two of three (freshmen) ended up winning singles matches for me that so that tells you right there how they are under pressure as freshmen,” Miller said.

Without one senior on the roster, it is important that you build a foundation for a team right from the bottom.

For Quinnipiac, the future looks bright.

“You always think its something you’re gonna have to build,” Miller said. “But then they come in and they grow. But to have that coming as freshmen, I think they’re just going to get tougher and tougher as the years go on.”

SGA hosts senior BBQ this Sunday on York Hill

By Cliff Nadel

Quinnipiac Student Government Association (SGA) will be hosting a Senior BBQ on Quinnipiac’s York Hill Campus on Sunday, April 29, from 1-6 p.m.

Thursday from 11 a.m to 1 p.m is the last chance for seniors to purchase a five dollar drink ticket.

Former Senior Class President Austin Solimine and his fellow Student Government Association representatives said they believe there was a lack of a senior tradition at Quinnipiac.

“Once we came into the spring semester we came up with the idea of having a barbeque with alcohol for the senior class only because there is a lack of senior tradition,” Solimine said.

Solimine and SGA teamed up with the Student Programming Board (SPB) and, according to Solimine, it took about three weeks plan the event. This included going through the hurdles with facilities and submitting multiple proposals to Student Affairs before it was approved.

Quinnipiac students feel the job pressure with graduation looming

By Victoria Rutigliano

Ryan Devaney

Victoria Saha

Liam Kenney

Nik Griswold

Mike Bonavita

Janine Jay

James Studley

Click each picture to learn more about the graduates.

Purchasing a small home in Wallingford, buying a brand new luxury Audi and the tuition for a private school in Connecticut. What do these all have in common? They cost upwards of $70,000.

This year Trinity College in Hartford raised its tuition and fees to this hefty price tag and it’s not the only school that is increasing tuition.

Quinnipiac Commencement 2017, Credit: Quinnipiac University

For the 2017-18 school year, the price for both tuition and room and board at Quinnipiac University was $63,770 with tuition growing by 6.5 percent from the school year before, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. While 95 percent of students receive aid and 93 percent attain scholarships, this still means most students will be in debt of more than six figures upon graduation, according to NCES.

With the price tag of a degree so high, some students say they feel pressure to major in a field where they’ll make enough money to pay back their loans and may decide to choose a job outside their path to make enough to support themselves.

But many students say they are aware of the costs and still only put some thought into their future salaries when choosing their major, according to a survey of 59 Quinnipiac students.

Screen Shot 2018-04-06 at 11.55.09 AM.png

In 2017, 43 students graduated from Quinnipiac with a journalism degree.

The average salary for a news reporter in the market size of 151 and higher, which are the stations with the least number of viewers per area, is $26,000 according to the Radio Television Digital News Association. Usually, entry-level reporters must start in a small market in order to build their reputations and improve their on-air presence.

Victoria Saha, who graduated in 2017, is one of these people.

As a multimedia news reporter for WAOW in Wausau, Wisconsin, Saha is an hourly employee making $12 an hour. If she signs a two-year contract after her three month “trial” when she and the station decide if she should continue, she will be making $24,000 a year.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, any salary below $24,120 can qualify for food stamps.

“It’s kind of sad, no?” Saha asked. “That doesn’t really cut it, you know, with taxes and everything. I mean the cost of living here is cheap, but sometimes I feel like it’s not enough.”

Saha applied to more than 300 jobs and was without work from the time she graduated in May until she was hired seven months later.

While this salary isn’t one any student would hope to start out with, Lila Carney, the director of advising and student development for the Quinnipiac School of Communications, said this is something students in this field usually know going in.

“I think students in journalism are aware of the fact that those first jobs in no-mans-land may not pay all that great,” Carney said. “But if you do a little bit of sacrificing eventually you make it to a market where you are making OK money. So that little time that you’re sacrificing is generally a short period of time.”

From the time you are a child, you’re asked who you want to be when you grow up. You’re told to “reach for the stars” and “follow your dreams.” When you apply for college you’re told to find what you love.

But you’re never told that doing what you love could mean a salary where you could qualify for food stamps.

From one end of the communications department to another, Mike Bonavita is feeling the same struggle.

Bonavita, a senior film major, said if you want to make it in film, you know you’ll probably be starting as an assistant or in the mail room.

“It’s basically where you want to be and there’s a lot of success stories that come out of the mail room,” Bonavita said. “In film as a (production assistant) you’re not making much. The film industry is tricky that if you’re really dedicated and you really want to do it you’re going to be working the crappy hours and the crappy days.”

But the job front isn’t just an issue for communications majors.

When you think of someone starting out in acting, “struggling” is probably a word that comes to mind. It’s no secret it’s tough to break into this job.

Ryan Devaney, a senior theater arts major, knows this too.

In his first year out of college he hopes to buy a computer, purchase editing software and get a microphone to start a YouTube channel to play songs.

This stepping stone for him is just one step toward his dream of opening his own theater.

“None of that can happen unless I have a stable income,” Devaney said. “I won’t be able to create my art unless I have a job. It will happen on my off time that I deal with creating art.”

But finding that job is also something he has found issue with.

“Right now I don’t have anything set currently in my mind,” Devaney said. He also knows he has a little more leeway than other people in his major to find a job since his father is a public safety officer at the university and thus he went to school tuition free.

According to NBC News, three in every four millenials, or people born between 1981 and 1996, are in some type of debt, whether this debt be through student loans or credit card debt.

Kevin Daly, an assistant professor of theater at Quinnipiac, knows that the school comes with a hefty price tag which could keep theater majors from wanting to come to an expensive school like Quinnipiac. For this reason, he said the department will be starting a theater three-plus-one program this fall so students can follow their passion in obtaining a theater degree while also graduating with a masters in business.

But working the smaller jobs is no surprise to a theater major, and with just 16 people in the department, each student is taught that in this major, you must follow three points to succeed, according to Daly. Constantly working on your art, networking with people in your chosen industry and using “survivability skills” – like finding a job outside of film to have a stable income – Daly said are imperative to finding a job as an artist.

For this reason, Daly advises his student to double major in other specialties like communications, film or even math to help them find jobs that will pay while also working on their art and networking.

College Major Salaries
Infogram

It’s not just a matter of landing a job that pays a livable wage, it may also be a matter of finding a job at all in tight markets.

Liam Kenney, a senior biomedical marketing major, is as worried as Devaney.

“It’s been quite the struggle at this point,” Kenney said. “A lot of the pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, they want experience. It’s difficult to find that experience because we’re entry level people.”

Kenney said once he does nail down a job, starting salaries in his business aren’t what he hoped they would be.

“It’s hard because when you start off in marketing and sales you start off with very low pay,” Kenney said after applying for one job at $45,000. “You don’t make commission in your first year and after your first year they cut you salary by $10,000 because you can start making commission.”

Both Bonavita and Kenney expressed their struggles with finding a job that paid the bills while also making enough to pay off Quinnipiac’s large tuition and student loans.

When students come into school, they often aren’t thinking about finding a job when they graduate because it’s so far down the line. For some majors like with Devaney, Kenney and Saha, a job is tough to find, but with others a job is everything but guaranteed when they graduate.

All majors pay the same tuition, but some have better starting opportunities than others.

In a Quinnipiac survey about majors and salaries, the majority of respondents said they felt very confident they’d attain a job after graduation with only two respondents saying they felt very uncertain about getting a job.

Screen Shot 2018-04-06 at 11.52.32 AM.png — The poll went from one being very likely to five being very unlikely.

The Quinnipiac School of Communications and Engineering might hold classes for both majors, but once the classroom doors close and the jobs start, the majors couldn’t be more different.

Nik Griswold, a mechanical engineering major, chose to major in engineering when he arrived on campus rather than his initial choice of business because there are more opportunities.

“I wanted to get a job so I picked engineering,” Griswold said. “Demand is high, where the world is going to is very (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) based. Everybody wants to be technical.”

Janine Jay, a computer software engineering major already has a job after graduation with Liberty Mutual Insurance in Boston after meeting with a representative at the Grace Hopper Celebration this year in Orlando, Florida.

She chose between three job offers. Jay said while engineering does have monetary benefits and she knew a starting salary was around $50,000 and moves up fast, she went in to engineering because for her, it was just fun.

“While everyone else was taking exams, I was building a video game,” Jay said.

Like Jay, James Studley, a computer information systems major, accepted his first job before his senior year began, accepting an offer to work as a systems engineer for Fidelity Investments in Rhode Island.

According to Studley and Payscale.com, the average salary for a CIS major coming out of Quinnipiac is about $65,000 with a $5,000 signing bonus. Studley will be starting out making $68,500 with a $5,000 signing bonus and will have $2,000 worth of his student loans paid for by Fidelity every year for five years.

“I feel like it made this year, it like took so much stress off,” Studley said. “I would be a lot more stressed right now if I was looking for a job especially with student loans starting up.”

Quinnipiac will wait for new president before building new dorm

By Cliff Nadel

Quinnipiac University plans to wait until new President Judy Olian assumes her role as president before Quinnipiac’s board of trustees approves a final plan and funding strategy for building the new residence hall on Quinnipiac’s York Hill campus according to the Quinnipiac administration.

On March 27, the town of Hamden’s Zoning and Planning Department approved and granted Quinnipiac University’s special permit and site plan to build a new 220-bed senior residence hall on Quinnipiac’s York Hill Campus.

According to Hamden Town Planner Daniel Kops, Quinnipiac needs to accomplish several tasks before they can obtain the necessary permits to build a new residence hall.

“The first step is to revise the plans to make any changes required by the conditions of approval,” Kops said. “Then comply with any other conditions of approval that must be addressed prior to obtaining a Zoning Permit.”

After complying with the conditions of approval the Zoning and Planning Department can issue a zoning permit to the University.

“Once this is done, the University must obtain a building permit from the Building Department,” Kops said.

Kops believes because of the size and scale of a project, the whole permit process could take several weeks.

After filing all of the necessary permits, according to Kops, the University has five years to complete the project but can request a five-year extension. After the University’s permits are approved, it needs to obtain funding and hire a construction company before the project can start.

According to Kops, as long as Quinnipiac revises and follows the conditions and plans of the approval, there isn’t anything from the town’s point of view that could derail the project.

According to Quinnipiac’s Vice President of Facilities and Capital Planning Salvatore Filardi, the financial plans to build a new residence hall on York Hill won’t be finalized until new President Olian assumes her role as president of the University.

“Now that we have the town’s approval, the University is still required to get the final plan and funding strategy approved by the Board of Trustees,” Filardi said. “Given the timing and the cost of the project, I expect that such a decision will not be addressed until the new president takes office.”

After the project is approved to move forward, Filardi anticipates that the new residence hall will take about 18 months of construction to complete.

“Once the projected is approved to move forward, we will have a typical schedule of construction; starting in the spring and completing in the second summer, some 18 months later with students occupying that fall,” Filardi said.

Here are the conditions of approval that Quinnipiac has to follow in order to receive a zoning permit and be able to build a new residence hall

Connecticut teachers are unlikely to organize walkouts

By Sam Prevot

Students made headlines around the country for walking out and protesting for gun control in the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida school shooting. Now, teachers are protesting for better work conditions, higher wages, and fighting against budget cuts. These walkouts are becoming more and more widespread, leading to statewide school closures in some cases.

The question now is: will teachers in Connecticut walk out as well? The answer is, most likely not.

This movement began in March when West Virginia teachers went on strike and shut down every public school in the state. Those teachers’ demands included defeating the expansion of charter schools, fixing a health insurance crisis and pay raises. The teachers also wanted to stop a proposal that would eliminate seniority, meaning the state could replace older teachers with younger ones that could be paid less.

The situation in Kentucky, Oklahoma and Arizona is similar.

Kentucky teachers are walking out in protest of pension overhauls and are demanding better funding and working conditions. Arizona teachers are participating in “non-disruptive walk-in demonstrations” this week.

Governor Mary Fallin of Oklahoma signed a bill to provide $50 million more in funding for schools, increased teacher salaries and pay raises for support staff. However, this wasn’t enough to meet the teachers’ demands, and their walk out went on as planned. The teachers want the funding to improve conditions such as replacing decades old textbooks that are beginning to fall apart.

Teachers in Oklahoma are some of the lowest paid in the country, with kindergarten teachers making an average salary of $40,370 per year. Elementary school teachers in Arizona and West Virginia make an average of $42,730 and $45,520 respectively. Kentucky comes in a bit higher with an average salary of $52,420.

(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

On the other hand, Connecticut teachers are some of the highest paid in the country. An elementary school teacher makes an average salary of $76,740. The only state that pays teachers more is New York. There is the factor of cost of living, as it is higher in states like Connecticut and New York than in the Southern states.

According to USNews, Connecticut ranks 14th overall in education nationally, but ranks fifth nationally in PreK-12 education.

Professor Mordechai Gordon of the Quinnipiac School of Education says his students may not even be aware of these walkouts. However, the faculty are aware and according to Gordon, the professors at QU are very sympathetic to what the teachers in these states are going through.

“The school supplies were in very bad condition and teachers sometimes had to draw on their on personal funds to get supplies for their classes,” Gordon said. “And just in general the way teachers are treated in those states is very reprehensible. Our teacher candidates are hopefully going to go into situations where it’s much better.”

The QU School of Education works with many schools in the area and conditions there are “considerably better” according to Gordon. Teachers are getting raises, and are generally being treated better.

“We’re glad that they’re organized and were able to, at least in West Virginia, get some things changed in the right direction,” Gordon said.

There are currently no reports of walkouts or strikes for Connecticut teachers.

Teri Alves, a second grade teacher in Orange, Connecticut, does not expect teachers in her district to organize a walkout. She says she rarely spends much money out of pocket for classroom supplies and the district and Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) help meet her needs.

The PTA for Alves’ school gives teachers money to spend every summer, which is enough to get her through the school year. Her school also bought her a new classroom library this year when she made the switch from fourth to second grade.

Alves was surprised by the working conditions of other teachers around the country.

“When I saw some of the things on the news like those books falling apart, I’m like well I have some of those in my closet because they weren’t cleaned out from the other teachers, but I wouldn’t ever think of using them,” Alves said. “So if that’s what people really have to use as their teaching materials, that’s pretty sad. I’ve never had that experience at all.”

Alves’ school provides laptops for students, and she has a SmartBoard in her classroom. She also says there is little to complain about when it comes to her pension and healthcare plans. A former teacher in her district is now the president of the Connecticut Education Association union, and Alves says the union is strong when negotiating things like salaries and other work conditions in the teachers’ contract.

So when it comes to the question of Connecticut teachers striking in the future, Alves is confident in her response.

“No, not at all. I don’t see it happening.”

Quinnipiac approves virtual office hours policy

By Thamar Bailey

Starting this fall Quinnipiac professors will be able to hold office hours not in person, but through their screens.

According to media studies professor and Faculty Senate Chair Lisa Burns, a recent policy change will allow faculty members to hold office hours either in person, virtually or both. Professors will be able to hold virtual office hours via online communication platforms like Skype, Zoom or email. It’s really about “whatever best meets their students’ needs,” Burns said.

The amended policy will also allow for faculty to shift their office hours throughout the semester if needed.

“For example, a professor may not need to hold office hours during the first week of the semester,” Burns said. “But they might add extra office hours the week before an exam or a major project.”

The original policy called for each faculty member to hold at least one hour of office hours for each three credit course taught each semester. For a three credit course a professor would need to hold 15 office hours throughout the course of the semester.

Furthermore, office hours needed to be posted and remain on file within the faculty members’ school or college office, according to Annalisa Zinn, vice president for academic innovation and effectiveness.

While the quantity of office hours hasn’t changed, revisions were made to “accomodate and balance the needs of students, variability in the types of courses (on campus vs. online), the needs of faculty, scheduling, space opportunities and constraints for both students and faculty,” Zinn said.

Zinn said she believes faculty will have a positive reaction to the policy change, “as indicated by how it was well-received by the Faculty Senate.”